A major new feature film largely set in 1960s Newcastle is released in UK cinemas this month.
Audiences will be able to see the The Duke, starring Oscar-winning actors Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, from February 25.
The story centres on a bizarre real-life tale that made the front pages of the Chronicle and other newspapers up and down the land 60 years ago.
READ MORE: Newcastle in 1967 - 10 photographs
In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 57-year-old taxi driver from Newcastle, (played by Jim Broadbent in the film) admitted to the theft of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London.
It was the first and only theft in the gallery’s 169-year history. The story of the stolen painting became headline news all over the world.
Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the Government invested more in care for the elderly - (he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television licenses).
Eventually Kempton decided to hand himself in. He was indicted to appear at the Old Bailey on charges including theft of the painting and its frame.
Jeremy Hutchinson QC (a distinguished barrister who had taken part in many famous cases including the obscenity trial over the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and was married to Peggy Ashcroft) had read about the case and thought it would be fun to defend Kempton.
Hutchinson decided on an ingenious way to mount his defence and Bunton was found not guilty of stealing the painting; he was only found guilty of stealing the frame and was sentenced to three months in prison.
Since then, the story has become mythology with the stolen painting even appearing in the James Bond movie, Dr No.
The Duke is directed by Roger Michell with screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman.
"It’s a feel-good film and I hope audiences will feel uplifted," says Coleman. "It’s about the kind of person you would want to be around.
"In a world that often does feel so bleak, there are people who genuinely have hope and genuinely believe that they can change things for the better.
"If there were more people like Kempton Bunton, the world would be a happier place."
Six decades after the event, it's incredible to think the Goya ended up in the locked cupboard of Bunton's Benwell council house for four years in the early '60s, unbeknown to his wife Dorothy (played by Helen Mirren), before he finally decided to return it to the nation and walked into Scotland Yard to give himself up.
In the aftermath of the case, the Chronicle in November 1965, as well as revealing Kempton Bunton had acquired his unusual name having been named after the 1904 Derby-winning jockey Kempton Cannon, described the Goya escapade as "a coup which shocked the nation".
Kempton Cannon Bunton died in Newcastle in 1976, aged 72.
- The Duke, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, is released in UK cinemas on February 25.
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